Horne, Alistair
Description
Product Description The collapse of France in 1870 had an overwhelming impact - on Paris, on France and on the open-mouthed world. People everywhere s
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aw Paris as the center of Europe and the hub of culture, fashion and invention. Suddenly France, not least to the disbelief of her own citizens, was in the vise of Prussian armies and forced to surrender on humiliating terms. Politics and nature abhorring a vacuum, Paris was convulsed by the savagery of the Commune. In this brilliant study of the Siege and its aftermath, Horne evokes the high drama of those ten fantastic months and the spiritual and physical agony which Paris and the Parisians suffered. Woven into his masterly text are many first-hand accounts left by official observers, diarists and correspondents. "Mr. Horne has a great canvas and he has taken his opportunity. THE FALL OF PARIS is compulsively readable." (The Times) From the Publisher 15 1.5-hour cassettes From AudioFile There are four episodes: Paris is sieged by Prussians with Krup guns; the city capitulates; the infuriated working class forms a commune and begins to kill off the bourgeoisie; the infuriated bourgeoisie retakes Paris and slaughters the radicals. This is a history lecture given by Bill Kelsey, a Books on Tape regular, a man with the voice of an Oxford don. The emphasis is on fact, not on story. Piquant facts abound throughout. During the siege, the Parisians ate the elephants out of the zoo. Rats were "a rich man's dish," because of the difficulty of preparation, and the necessity of a fine, strong sauce. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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